You know there is a Christmas game families across America play during the holidays. I don’t know if it has a formal name but my family calls it simply Saran Wrap Ball. It is such a fun game that I know your students will love to play. Here are a few ways to play it in your classroom.
Setting it Up
This is an easy game that takes very little prep time. All you need is
- Saran Wrap (I like the real thing it seems to hold better but you can use a generic brand too)
- Two dice
- Activities like task cards, vocabulary strips, or question strips
- Option: Candy individually wrapped or free homework passes
Take your first object you will use in your Saran Wrap Ball and wrap it several times in the Saran Wrap. Then place the next item on the wrap and roll it several times before adding the next. Continue to do this until all of your items are wrapped. The last item you put in should be wrapped 3 – 5 times so it is harder to start and the items don’t just fall out. You can also move the wrap in different directions to make it more challenging.
I suggest you layer special rewards every few layers to encourage students to have more buy-in to the game. Try adding candy, free homework passes or small little prizes.
How to Play
Circle students up. One student starts with the Saran Wrap Ball. The person to that student’s left will have the dice. The person with the dice will roll both dice until they roll doubles. Once they roll doubles, they pass the dice and take the Saran Wrap ball from the person on their right and play continues. Whatever comes out of the ball during the student’s turn, they keep. Once everything is out of the ball, students must complete the tasks on their card. These tasks can be practicing a list of vocabulary words, using a vocabulary word in a sentence, or performing a task. It is really up to you and what they want students to practice.
Task Cards
You can fill the Saran Wrap Ball with task cards that tell students what to practice. These tasks can be viewing activities, review practice, or presentational topics.
Research Topics
Use the Saran Wrap ball as a way to assign a research topic. This can be strips of paper that have names of famous Deaf people, a country to present on, or a college ASL program to discuss.
Partners
The Saran Wrap Ball is a creative way to assign groups. It can add a little excitement to the work you will be assigning. Place numbers in the ball on small sheets of paper. If you are wanting partners, there will be 2 of each number in the ball. For example, if you have 40 students in your classroom, you will have numbers 1 – 20 used twice in your ball. You need lots of ideas to partner students up.
Pictures
Students can never get enough classifier practice. A great way to do that is to wrap different images in the ball. If you are describing objects, place various images of kitchen utensils in the ball and allow students time to practice how to describe them.
You can place pictures of travel locations and have students create a story of where that country or state is, what they will do when they go, and what they will pack.
Students can practice describing the layout of a room for housing. Place one image of a room in the house in the ball for each student you teach. Or you can place 2 of the same images and have students work together.
Also, you can place two like images and have students walk around describing the room to each other until they find their partner. This can add a little bit of movement to your classroom.
I would love to see videos and how you used the Saran Wrap Ball to add some fun to your classroom. Join the conversation in our Facebook group.
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